GAMA Expo 2025: Crabs in a Bucket, Zeit Heist, That’s Dope, and Pet Domination: Kittens vs Corgis | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

In 2020, GAMA launched a new program called the Horizons Fellowship, which it describes as an “eight-month accelerator program for prospective and newly established tabletop game publishers and retail store owners”. Those accepted into the program receive membership in GAMA, travel vouchers and booth space at GAMA Expo and the Origins Game Fair, mentorship by an experienced publisher or retailer, and other benefits. Here are the non-RPG 2024 publisher fellows:

▪️ Rick Gardner launched Blue Rondo Games in 2023 with Crabs in a Bucket, a shedding card game in which the deck consists of standard numbered and suited cards, as well as 22 “joker crabs” with special powers. You play onto two discard piles — one for standard cards, the other for jokers — with the first cards being played Mau Mau-style by matching suit or number, and when you play, you can choose to play higher cards in the same suit as well.

In 2024, Gardner released the Crabs in a Bucket: Shrimpocalypse expansion, which adds new joker crabs, a new Seabunnies suit, and the Four Horsemen of the Shrimpocalypse, which can give a player an immediate win when all of them have hit the table.

In 2025, Gardner and Blue Rondo Games will crowdfund Zeit Heist, a time-travel-themed drafting card game in which you want to assemble your team before your opponents can, with opportunities to turn back time to keep others from winning.

That game will be followed by A Totally Normal Game about Frogs, made in co-operation with artist Hannah Comstock, who has a large line of Totally Normal Frogs as pins, stickers, and other doodads.

▪️ Pet Domination: Kittens vs Corgis is the debit title from Justine Coven of Pet Domination, LLC, which sounds like the authoritarian animal training service to turn to when your critters won’t take “No” for an answer.

Pet Domination: Kittens vs Corgis is a card game for 2-5 players in which you play pet influencers, that is, influencers who are pets. To channel Peter Steiner’s classic 1993 cartoon: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

On a turn, you play cards — called “posts” — from your hand to gain followers, sabotage opponents, set up traps, steal followers, and so on, with the long-term goal of hitting the follower goal threshold while also having at least 4 million more followers than anyone else. It’s not enough to be successful; you have to left others far behind. Alternatively, have the most followers when the deck runs out.

▪️ That’s Dope: The Party Game for Strong Opinions is a party game from Ira Blossom of Black King Games for 2-6 players.

That’s Dope falls into the category of a “conversation starter” party game in that it challenges you to read others at the table or get to know the folks you’re playing with.

Each person has a “DOPE” card and a “NOPE” card. On a turn, the active player reads a topic card, then asks everyone, “Dope or nope?” Each other player places the card of their choice face down, then the active player guesses how many “DOPE”s were played. If they guess correctly, they claim the topic card as a point. Whoever has the most points after five rounds wins.

At BGG.CON 2024 in November, I joined a group playing That’s Dope on a somewhat continual basis in that they weren’t keeping score, but just going around the table over and over again, talking a lot about each topic and why they thought it merited dopeness or nopeness. Former BGG admin Ace is a huge fan of games along these lines, and he’d up the challenge by stating how each other person voted, often nailing all of the other 5-7 players (as people came and went throughout the evening).

Aside from the base game, Blossom has released smaller editions for 2-4 players that can be played on their own or mixed with the cards of the base game: Family Game Night Edition, Safe For Work Edition Vol. 1, and That’s Dope: After Dark Edition Vol. 1. Additionally, That’s Dope: Custom Pack includes blank topic cards for use in whatever why seems appropriate.

▪️ Blossom’s next project is Sunday Club, a newspaper print publication similar to the puzzle section in a Sunday newspaper, but with nothing other than the games. For more info, you can visit the Sunday Club website or sign up for the forthcoming crowdfunding project.